3/26/09

Calling all banana bread lovers out there! Have I got an insanely delish banana bread for you. This banana bread will take you to a whole other banana bread level--yes it's that good! Why? Well, the flavor of the butterscotch is so gentle and melds so perfectly with the banana. I think the trick was finding the right amount of butterscotch to put in, and of course the mascarpone cheese adds a lot of smoothness. You know how the flavor of butterscotch chips is kind of strong and chemicaly-testing? Well, I added just the right amount of butterscotch chips to meld perfectly with the bananas, and cheese to give it a wonderful light-sugary, banana taste. The taste is so hard to describe, but trust me, this banana bread is fabulous. No butter or cream cream will be needed on your slice of this. The leftovers, I swear only get better with time. Seriously, you need to make this.

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour a 9-x-5-3-inch loaf pan. (I did 2 of these). Make sure to grease and flour, do not skip this step!
Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.
Combine the buttermilk and mascarpone cheese in a small bowl and set aside. In a separate bowl beat eggs then combine them to the buttermilk & mascarpone mixture.
Using a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment beat the butter with the cinnamon on high speed until soft and creamy, about 1 minute. Slowly add the sugar beating continuously on high speed.
The mixture should be light, fluffy and creamy white in color. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
Add one third of the flour mixture to the batter and beat until it is just incorporated.
Add one third of the mascarpone cheese mixture and mix until just incorporated.
Add the flour and mascarpone mixture in two more additions, mixing until addition is incorporated before adding the next.
Fold in the mashed bananas and butterscotch chips.
Pour the batter into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. (mine was done in an hour, so watch your bread as the hour-mark approaches, but I have a convection oven that seems to have a higher heat than most ovens; so your bread my take longer than an hour. always use a cake tester to judge if it's done or not).
Cool in the pan on a rack for 5-10 minutes, then remove from pan and set on rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature. Note: you might be tempted to add nuts to this - don't! I did and it just didn't taste the same.

I made this in muffin form a while back and couldn't get enough. The flavor combo is a special one and quite addictive, I may add! Photos are gorgeous as usual and make the food look all the more appetizing. Still freezing over there Dawn? Windy as heck in So Cal today. Should have stayed north!

Wow, Dawn, what a delicious combo! I love that you used marscarpone in this. That cheese is one of my favorites to throw into baked goods. This bread totally doesn't need any butter or cream--it's perfect the way it is. Moist, sweet, mmm, I'm making myself so hungry! I need to just make this bread, I think.

Oh my goodness does that look good. I predict that Banana and Butterscotch are the new "it" flavors. I have a few very ripe bananas on my counter just asking to me whipped into something delightful. I think this is the recipe!

Oh wow...what a delectable combo this is! I just bought a nice bunch of bananas today...now...how do I keep Bob away from them? Post it notes with DO NOT TOUCH-NEED FOR BAKING!!!-on each one? It's worth a shot...this bread looks way too good not to try ASAP!

WOW!!! The addition of butterscotch chips & Mascerpone cheese is truly a wow factor!! I love the apparent moistness of this bread!! Gee... I wonder if the boss ate all the bananas I left at the office, there's a possibility I may have some ripe banana's to make this.. thanks !

Wow...just found your blog via another search and I'm sitting here drooling, smiling, admiring...just wow! Love your photos, thank you for the recipes and you now have one more groupie! Greetings from the AZ desert. :)

i just finished baking a batch and it's definitely the most successful banana bread i've ever made. delicious AND it cooked all the way through in just an hour, AND it came out of the pan perfectly. what more can a girl ask for?

OMG this recipe is fabulous. I made two of these, one for work, and one for home. They did not last long at all. I hate eating bananas, but I saw the recipe and just had to try. I'm willing to eat it! :)

about vanilla sugar blog

Unique eats, creative recipes, as simple as possible.What drives me to create? Seeing dishes in restaurants, meals created on TV, recipes in cookbooks/online, and I always think to myself why didn’t they add this or why did they leave out that? Love to question, love to research, and love to learn about combining different flavors and textures in recipes.Recipe creations please email: vanillasugarblog@aol.com